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Post by antbar on Oct 15, 2023 12:39:21 GMT -6
I just grabbed a pair of VSX phones. I'm on the lesser-budget end of things and opted for the Essentials version - only a small number of rooms/spaces/headphones. After a couple days' use, I'm pretty convinced I'll want to keep these headphones... my "mixing" room is my wife's former office in the house and while I/it gets the job done, there's always some motorcycle rolling by outside or that damn rooster saying hello. I'm finding that with the VSX cans on, I'm able to lose myself more deeply in my tracks.
I was assuming I'd pick up the Studio Bundle for another $100, but I'm thinking now maybe the Platinum upgrade for $200, which includes free upgrades.
How many of you folks are using multiple VSX rooms/spaces? Or/and, how many have settled into a few favs that you use in contrast to your actual, real room?
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Post by Johnkenn on Oct 15, 2023 13:51:09 GMT -6
I think the ones I thought sounded good were all in the platinum
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Post by antbar on Oct 15, 2023 15:48:53 GMT -6
I think the ones I thought sounded good were all in the platinum I was tempted to simply grab the Zuma room, as I've seen that come up most often in discussions about VSX, but I'll probably just grab the whole mess at once! |
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Post by Darren Boling on Oct 15, 2023 18:37:58 GMT -6
I think the ones I thought sounded good were all in the platinum I was tempted to simply grab the Zuma room, as I've seen that come up most often in discussions about VSX, but I'll probably just grab the whole mess at once! I got mine before they split it to Essentials and Platinum, if I were starting today I'd only do essentials and add Zuma room. When using VSX I'm on Zuma fars 99% of the time. I get the temptation to have everything, who knows what will work best for you, but I don't get some at the other place that seem to jump around constantly and always want something new/different. What really sold me on Zuma fars was back in v3 I took it to my buddy's mastering studio that also has ATC 110's. We spent the last 30 mins of the session tuning the Zuma fars to his room, I was very excited to have this as a tool with me all the time. With the release of V4 I've since quit using the eq curve as their natural state is now basically what we tuned but more open. I have fewer notes from him when I send songs now. This is slightly frustrating/embarassing as my well tuned (to the same overall house curve) D&D 8c's are no slouch. Oh well, whatever gets there in the end. |
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Post by antbar on Oct 15, 2023 21:06:26 GMT -6
I was tempted to simply grab the Zuma room, as I've seen that come up most often in discussions about VSX, but I'll probably just grab the whole mess at once! I got mine before they split it to Essentials and Platinum, if I were starting today I'd only do essentials and add Zuma room. When using VSX I'm on Zuma fars 99% of the time. I get the temptation to have everything, who knows what will work best for you, but I don't get some at the other place that seem to jump around constantly and always want something new/different. What really sold me on Zuma fars was back in v3 I took it to my buddy's mastering studio that also has ATC 110's. We spent the last 30 mins of the session tuning the Zuma fars to his room, I was very excited to have this as a tool with me all the time. With the release of V4 I've since quit using the eq curve as their natural state is now basically what we tuned but more open. I have fewer notes from him when I send songs now. This is slightly frustrating/embarassing as my well tuned (to the same overall house curve) D&D 8c's are no slouch. Oh well, whatever gets there in the end. Hey Nudwig - thanks for this - good info. The temptation to studio/speaker hop is strong, though so far I've been trying to stick with one room and one set of far speakers, just to keep my head in a single place. |
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Post by Johnkenn on Oct 16, 2023 9:23:21 GMT -6
Ok just looked. Archon, Zuma and Weinberg have speakers that I listen to. Maybe the one I like the most is the Archon with the Amphions and PMCs.
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Post by Darren Boling on Oct 16, 2023 10:41:52 GMT -6
I got mine before they split it to Essentials and Platinum, if I were starting today I'd only do essentials and add Zuma room. When using VSX I'm on Zuma fars 99% of the time. I get the temptation to have everything, who knows what will work best for you, but I don't get some at the other place that seem to jump around constantly and always want something new/different. What really sold me on Zuma fars was back in v3 I took it to my buddy's mastering studio that also has ATC 110's. We spent the last 30 mins of the session tuning the Zuma fars to his room, I was very excited to have this as a tool with me all the time. With the release of V4 I've since quit using the eq curve as their natural state is now basically what we tuned but more open. I have fewer notes from him when I send songs now. This is slightly frustrating/embarassing as my well tuned (to the same overall house curve) D&D 8c's are no slouch. Oh well, whatever gets there in the end. Hey Nudwig - thanks for this - good info. The temptation to studio/speaker hop is strong, though so far I've been trying to stick with one room and one set of far speakers, just to keep my head in a single place. That's my philosophy as well. Any time I've been with a big mixer, or in a mastering session, they're not whipping all over the place until maybe at the end when checking for specific issues. they know their room/speaker combo and get to work. So while the temptation is there, especially when I first got VSX, I now limit myself so I don't start down some micro detail rabbithole when there's big picture things that need to be addressed. |
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Post by Johnkenn on Oct 19, 2023 12:52:53 GMT -6
If anyone wants to buy this from me, I'll sell it for a discount. Platinum Edition. Basically brand new with a killer discount.
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Slate vsx
Oct 19, 2023 13:32:06 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by kcatthedog on Oct 19, 2023 13:32:06 GMT -6
Hey Nudwig - thanks for this - good info. The temptation to studio/speaker hop is strong, though so far I've been trying to stick with one room and one set of far speakers, just to keep my head in a single place. That's my philosophy as well. Any time I've been with a big mixer, or in a mastering session, they're not whipping all over the place until maybe at the end when checking for specific issues. they know their room/speaker combo and get to work. So while the temptation is there, especially when I first got VSX, I now limit myself so I don't start down some micro detail rabbithole when there's big picture things that need to be addressed. That makes so much sense to me: as what you are actually doing is calibrating yourself (your ears) to something that is consistent, so your mix decisions are consistent and you have a context, which is also consistent. |
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Post by earlevel on Nov 30, 2023 22:58:19 GMT -6
tl;dr: VSX Platinum $349, all in
I just bought VSX Platinum. Not because I have a problem to fix, nor because I need a new set of headphones anyway. Largely out of curiosity, as long as I was getting it at a reasonable price.
First, the price: Slate has $100 off Platinum through tomorrow, December 1. That had me thinking for the past week, borderline. I have a B&H credit card, which rebates the tax—10% in California. But when I looked last week, B&H was not updated to the Slate sales price, still showed $499. As the cutoff, tomorrow, approached, I took another look today, just to give me options to sleep on. not only was the site updated with the $100-off price, but there was an addition "clip here" coupon for $50 off. So, all-in $349, shipping included. Only a $50 premium to the non-platinum price. Oh dammit, yes, I clicked buy. We'll see.
I do have some of the Waves virtual rooms—the original NX, then bought the CLA NX, which sounded much better, at some cheap price. With a little headphone correction, it seemed helpful. The Slate package is more integrated and gives more options, so if it's done well it should be useful. But I was mostly curious, so didn't want to be out money better spent elsewhere, should I not be that into it.
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Slate vsx
Dec 1, 2023 4:43:26 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by kcatthedog on Dec 1, 2023 4:43:26 GMT -6
So, the essentials is basically $300 plus, in john’s case I’d buy 2 add in rooms zuma and archon,plus $60, so $360?
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Post by doubledog on Dec 1, 2023 9:16:23 GMT -6
I originally bought the essentials (last year) and after about a month I upgraded to Platinum. I honestly rarely use it for everyday "mixing". Nor do I post on FB everyday like all the fanboys. Instead I do some of what I'll call pseudo-mastering - meaning I'm doing the mixing and mastering for a client because they don't have the budget for both. This is where I found it was really helpful. My room is pretty good, but mostly setup for tracking. I have different headphones that can help me hear some of the low end (and sometimes other ranges) clearer, but VSX really helped me narrow down where some problems were. Then I'd listen on the monitors again and just ensure everything still sounded better, clearer (or if not, then I'd make more corrections). But jumping back and forth between VSX and monitors worked best for me. And even though I have 2 sets of monitors, I found this was like a 3rd set I suppose. I installed the new rooms that just came out but tbh I haven't even tried them yet because I haven't had a project at that stage yet (but will soon).
and yes, sadly, SS is the king of hype. Sometimes that makes me want to run the other way, but sometimes he has shit that just works. I know he's not officially part of Slate Digital anymore (after he sold it to Audiotonix), but I still use some of those plugins every day (and now he's stopped hyping those at least). FG-X, or now FG-X2, VMR (VCC), VBC (this is probably my favorite).... I was never going to sign up for the stupid subscription, but I own these and I hope Audiotonix keeps them going because I use them.
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Post by earlevel on Dec 1, 2023 13:08:39 GMT -6
So, the essentials is basically $300 plus, in john’s case I’d buy 2 add in rooms zuma and archon,plus $60, so $360? Maybe you already got this, from my previous post, but I'll reiterate since I believe this is the last day of the $100 discount from Slate. So, with the $100 off from Slate, and the $50 off from bhphotovideo, I paid $349 for Platinum, which includes all rooms and updates. I see you're in Canada, so I'm not sure how this affects you. But if you can take advantage of it, it would solve your concern with what rooms to buy... |
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Post by kcatthedog on Dec 1, 2023 15:54:11 GMT -6
Thx, yea, I saw, unfortunately slate site blocks sales ti Canada, encourages you to talk to cdn retailers, who typically seem to know nothing about slate discounts or pretend they don’t: a big turn off.
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Post by doubledog on Dec 2, 2023 9:43:25 GMT -6
So, with the $100 off from Slate, and the $50 off from bhphotovideo, I paid $349 for Platinum, which includes all rooms and updates. that is a heck of a deal |
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Post by earlevel on Dec 7, 2023 20:21:12 GMT -6
I won't have time to try mixing with VSX till the new year, but I've listened enough to them that I'm sure they'll have their place.
I also did a brief check against CLA Nx, which I mentioned before. Music sounds good though CLA Nx (I only have it and the original Nx—CLA sounds much more impressive). So, there was the small nagging thought that I could have gone with new headphones that Waves supports (which I subsequently found that Waves has expanded support to 270 headphones, including ones I have), instead of VSX.
In quick tests, CLA Nx through VSX (bypassed/linearized) sounded more spacious and impressive than VSX. But I needed to check how realistic it was. I played a tracking mix that had a little high-hat pattern that had been left and right for some stereo movement. It was clear and defined on CLA Nx, stood out. However, that wasn't a good thing, because I knew I had the 'hat down a bit—didn't need it to stand out in the mix—so it was barely there. Took off the headphone and listened to my little IK MTMs (my computer monitors), and yep, barely there, just as I recalled and just like VSX. In other words, I suspect a VSX mix would translate much better. Without taking time to check everything in detail, the overall balance was much more similar between the MTMs nearfield and VSX.
So, I suspect VSX will be useful. I'll have to do some mixing tests to see what rooms and speakers will be most revealing and translate well, but so far I have some candidates, I think one of them will work out.
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